1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to electronic communications and social networking systems. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to social network stealth and counter messaging.
2. Related Art
As a communications tool, the Internet has grown well beyond its research and scientific roots, and is now ubiquitous throughout all aspects of daily work and personal lives. Much of business and communications pertaining thereto are conducted electronically over e-mail, instant messaging systems, and teleconferencing systems that all utilize the data transfer capabilities of the Internet. Documents and other media necessary for business are also stored and exchanged electronically. Furthermore, various automated transactions such as the purchase of goods, banking, and even government-related filings may be completed over web-based applications and websites that are accessible remotely from any location at any time.
Along with the increasing use of the Internet for such business and commercial purposes, so is the use for entertainment and social purposes. Currently, one of the most popular sites accessed online are social networking services, in which users establish connections with other users to share information.
There are numerous social networking sites that are currently in operation, and each generally provides a slightly different user experience that caters to different needs and uses than the others. Some of these differences are by design and inherent to the features of the social networking site, while other differences may simply stem from the perceived environment to which the users conform their activities. For example, services such as Facebook (www.facebook.com), MySpace (www.myspace.com), and Google+ (plus.google.com) may take on a more leisurely atmosphere, while a service such as LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is more work-oriented, where the focus is more on the professional accomplishments and business relationships of the users. A service such as Twitter (www.twitter.com) may be suitable for broadcasting short, limited length messages to the users' network of “followers,” and a service such as Flickr (www.flickr.com) may be limited on the sharing of photographs.
In most cases, the connections or networks that the users establish mirror those of the participants' real-life friendships and associations. However, relationships may also be formed solely online based upon common interests or activities, particularly where the participants are located in disparate geographic areas. Because of the varying uses, one person may have accounts on more than one of the aforementioned social networking sites and others, and information shared on one site may be cross-shared on another site.
The primary feature that is common amongst most social network sites is the user profile. Users establish an account with the social networking site by providing a name and other identifying information, and before any action may be taken in connection with the user profile, the user logs in to the account by supplying an account identifier and a password. The profile may include biographic data such as birthday, gender, current location, schools attended, employment experiences, and personal relationships for searching and viewing by other users. Further information that may provide an even more detailed picture of the profile owner and his personality may be added, such as religious affiliation, personal philosophies, tastes in music, literature, cinema, television, athletic teams, and so on.
Links to other users or contacts may be formally established and publicized on a user's profile as well, which may then permit direct communications via e-mail like messages between the user and the contacts. In some systems, real-time chat with concurrently online contacts may also be possible. Access to the profile information may be restricted based upon the level of affiliation to its owner. For example, contacts having a direct “friendship” link to a given user may be able to view the complete profile information thereof, while those having only a secondary affiliation (friend of a friend) may be able to view only the basic biographic information. The establishment of a friendship “network” is understood to facilitate new users to the social network to establish their own direct links to common friends.
Specific user-to-user communications is a significant aspect of most social networking services, but another feature which perhaps eclipses this is the broadcasting of information to everyone within the user's circle of contacts. Specific names and implementations may vary, with some social networking services referring to this feature as a “wall,” while others refer to this feature as “comments,” “tweets,” or others. Regardless of the terminology employed, the feature is essentially the same—a variety of content can be posted by the profile owner or by the profile owner's contacts for viewing by those within the user's network of friends. This content may include text messages, Uniform Resource Locator (URLS) including links to other webpages, photographs, and videos. With the proliferation of GPS (Global Positioning Satellite)-enabled mobile devices with Internet access capabilities, location coordinate data may also be posted. There may be enhancements to the display of the foregoing data, such as showing the location on a map overlaid on the rendered page, or a preview of the webpage for a link.
Oftentimes personal and social lives are kept sharply segregated from work or professional lives. Conduct or activities that may be acceptable within a person's social circles may be deemed completely inappropriate or undesirable within that person's professional circles. It is the rare individual who can seamlessly blend social and professional identities without the risk of repercussions. For example, a person's drinking exploits or frequenting of establishments of questionable repute may be entertaining for friends, but may not be well taken by employers, supervisors, co-workers, and clients.
With social networking services permitting, and indeed encouraging users to post and share all kinds of information, including that which may not be the most professionally advisable, many an unwary social networking user has been unable to exercise discretion and restraint, shared too much, and suffered the consequences. As a result, there have been many instances of imprudent posts that led to dismissals from employment and irreparable reputational damage amongst colleagues. Along these lines, before extending an offer of employment, employers now frequently search social networking sites for obvious red flags and problematic posts that may render a candidate unsuitable. Even within social circles, publicizing certain information may lead to broken friendships and broken romantic relationships.
Earlier implementations of social networking sites did not provide the user with much control over what information was shared with which contacts. Improvements in privacy settings and independent restriction control for each piece of content posted or otherwise associated with the profile has reduced the likelihood of inadvertent disclosure to certain undesired contacts. Still other social networking sites such as Google+ have been built around the concept of grouping contacts into subsets, referred to as “circles,” with the user having the power to designate which content is visible to which of the “circles.”
Notwithstanding these additional privacy measures, it may be desirable to post some content, as these “on or off” content access limits may result in some contacts not seeing any information at all. There is a delicate balance to be maintained between the sharing and restricting of posts to avoid offending those contacts with which the user would rather not share much of his personal life, but with which the user would nevertheless like to maintain connections for various reasons. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved social network stealth and counter messaging.